Former CIA Director John Brennan President Biden was summoned last week to ban Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from the US, who issued an intelligence report last week blaming the Saudi royal ruler for the death of dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The report of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that the crown prince “approved an operation in imperial Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill” Khashoggi, a journalist who was a deep critic of the Saudi royal family.
It stated that the assessment was “the Crown Prince’s control of decision making in the Kingdom.”
Brennan, who led the CIA from March 2013 to January 2017, said that despite the strategic alliance between the two countries, Biden should hold bin Salman accountable.
He said that the president should be able to make a “distinction” between that partnership and “the actions of one person”.
“So I’m really hoping that the Biden administration will hold him accountable. He is not going to come to the US for any official or personal tour,” Brennan was quoted as saying by MSNBC on Saturday.
He also said that Biden administration officials should not attend any high-level meetings with bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi, to send a direct message to other leaders in the Middle East and around the world.
“It should be made very clear, not only to MU Hameed bin Salman and the rest of the Saudi government, but also to other governments throughout the region,” Brennan said.
“They cannot get away with it because the Biden administration is going to hold them to certain standards in terms of human rights and values,” he said.
The intelligence report states that a 15-member Saudi team arrived in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the day of the assassination under the supervision of Saud al-Watani, a close adviser to Salman Salman, who publicly claimed in mid-2018 Was that he did not take the decision without the approval of the Crown Prince. “
Seven members of bin Salman’s elite personal protective detail, a unit that only responded to the prince, were part of that team. Khashogi, an American resident and columnist for the Washington Post, was reportedly removed.
His body was never discovered.
In the wake of the report, Biden announced sanctions against scores of other Saudis, but not those of bin Salman, citing the need to maintain a partnership between the two countries.
But after criticism by Democrats and Republicans of doing an easy job on bin Salman, also known as “MBS”, the president indicated on Saturday that another announcement was being made on Monday.
“There will be an announcement on Monday about what we are going to do with Saudi Arabia in general.”
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